MMA Fighting - On To the Next One | What's Next For Ilia Topuria After UFC 317?

Episode Date: June 29, 2025

Ilia Topuria is the new UFC lightweight champion after viciously knocking out Charles Oliveira in the main event of UFC 317 on Saturday night in Las Vegas. Topuria faced off with rival Paddy Pimblett following the victory, and while it may not be the meritocratic way to go about things, is this the fight to make for Topuria's first title defense? On an all-new edition of On To the Next One, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck and Alexander K. Lee discuss what's next for Topuria after winning his second divisional UFC world title, along with who Oliveira could face in his next outing. Additionally, future matchups are discussed for flyweight champ Alexandre Pantoja and Kai Kara-France following Pantoja's submission win, Joshua Van after his win over Brandon Royval in a Fight of the Year contender, along with fellow main card winners Beneil Dariush, Payton Talbott, and more. Follow Mike Heck: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@m_heckjr⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow Alexander K. Lee: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@AlexanderKLee⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Subscribe:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ http://goo.gl/dYpsgH⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Check out our full video catalog: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://goo.gl/u8VvLi⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Visit our playlists:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ http://goo.gl/eFhsvM⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Like MMAF on Facebook: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow on Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://goo.gl/nOATUI⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Read More: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. Well, hello there, everybody. Welcome to a brand new edition of On to the next one. Yes, the matchmaking crowns are back after a memorable, very fun, storyline-filled UFC 317 event. International Fight Week delivers in absolute spades. I think unquestionably the best card of 2025 so far. We have a brand new lightweight champion. the world. Lots of options for Ilya,

Alexander Pantosia might actually be the best pound fighter in the world. We'll discuss that. We'll discuss some of the other matchmaking options for the big winners at UFC 317. Before you do that, I am Mike Hack and joining me as always is the co-host, the co-matchwaguer, the Prince of Positivity and my best friend, the one and only, Alexander Kay Lee, who has let me know, and he's doing this very smartly, Alvin Hines is going to be his 15th ranked heavyweight following his performance at UFC 317.

Am I right, A.K. He was robbed. He was robbed, my best friend. You got to reward that kind of heart. What do we? What's going on? No, I mean, it was, I'm having a good time, man. I'm having a good time.

That felt so refreshing. I don't know. Maybe that's the wrong word to use. But like, I just like, I had such good vibes coming off that card. everyone knows. I mean, I don't know if everyone knows by now, but like, you know, when we do one of these cards, there's so much work to be done after.

Of course, like, working during the card is one thing, and then there's just a whole slew of tasks that needs to be taken care of after. And sometimes it's a drag, like sometimes it's drag, right? I mean, we love it. We love watching M.A. Love right on M.A. and never going to complain about it.

But it can be a bit of a slog. Did not feel that way at all, honestly, for me last night. Even though, like, the rhythm was very much the same. It was quite a bit of a weight between, like, Dana White, and then Alas Ranger Patoja and then like Ilya, like there was the same gap like as a post-flight press conference we always have. But there was also a sense of anticipation. There was a sense of excitement.

Even with Pantosia, who I know is like not, you know, Mr. electrifying on the microphone. Like you wanted to hear what he had to say. It was such a compelling performance. And I thought he did a great job. He was given a lot of microphone time after the post-fights scrum. Ilya came on and did his thing. Actually didn't have a lot to say, but I mean, there wasn't much for him to say after that performance. He spoke very, very, very loudly with his fist.

and just capping off a really excellent evening for the UFC for the fighters involved. A card we will be talking about for many, many years to come, like just the ramifications of it. But yeah, as far as pure entertainment value, like great stuff. We say this at the end of pretty much every show that we do of this particular program, AK, that on that, MMA is supposed to be fun. And it was just, it was just fun. Like the whole week was fun outside of Chris. but in terms of UFC 317, this was just fun.

The whole ride was fun. It built anticipation throughout. I gave it an 8.7 in anticipation on Friday. I was up to close to a nine during the People's Pre-Fight show. It's just, it's just awesome. Joseph loves this gate number of the UFC going from 15.9 million to 11.6 million this year. Again, as I said last night, that's because this card was originally billed as a Conimer Gregor comeback.

card. So the ticket prices were much more expensive last year, which is why. This isn't because the UFC is falling. They sold 19,000 frigate tickets to this event. So it just didn't have Cotta McGregor involved in it in any way, shape, or form, which is why the gate is lower. That's literally the only reason. There is no need to overthink this. That's literally why the gate numbers are different because the ticket price is just way more expensive last year. That's it. That's all it comes down to. But let's get into what happened last night. Let's get into Ilya, A.K., which before we discuss the probably obvious matchmaking here, we are going to do a full-on M.M.A. fighting ranking shuffle up. We're just going to go in there. We're going to update everything.

So I'm going to ask you right now, because I don't know yet. I have not decided, I am pondering it more than I thought I would. Is Ilya going to be your number one pound for pound fighter after this win? man we tried to prepare ourselves for this on the preview show mike you know i remember we brought it up we tried to discuss it and i think the exact criteria i laid out was almost something like what if he just dusts oliver let's say first round knockout just smokes him i didn't think it was necessarily going to play out that way we knew it was possible but that's literally exactly what happened that under under half a round a no doubt knockout you know this is a this is a cracks him really dramatic. You can just see Charles' body just

shut down before falling over to the mat. It was like a very cinematic knockout. You couldn't have left a better impression. There's really nothing more Aaliyah could have done than finish him in one minute. I don't know. You know, to make a statement that he is the number one powerful pound guy. That said,

I don't remember exactly what it said in the preview show. I wanted to I believe I wanted to go with we'll wait to see what happens with Islam. Which sucks because we don't know exactly when the Islam Makachev versus Jack Delamay-Madelan-Madal-Fight is happening. We're kind of assuming October, which even if it's that, that's still a ways away.

That's, what, three, four months away, right? So it seems unfair that after that performance, Ilya has to sit in the number two spot again and then wait for Islam, and then we'd see if Islam wins or not. So I'll say this. I'm not being fair with, I feel like I'm not being fair, but I am going to leave Islam number one. I will wait. I will wait out the next few months.

if Islam loses to Jack Delamadalina, then of course, of course, Ilya will take the top spot. And if Islam wins, he'll just stay. So not a sexy answer. You know, not a sexy answer. I know that's not the anime community wants to hear right now because that was so incredible from Elia.

He really captured our imaginations. But I will be leaving Islam at number one. This will probably be, this will be a great ranking show this week. Because I have a feeling we might actually have a tie because there's six members. There's a very real. chance we have a tie for first for number one pound for pound for the first time ever because

I mean there's no other way to go about it it's either going to be Islam or or to pour you can't go any other way you can I mean Jed might be the wrench at all this because he said he might put pantosia as number one which by the way I don't hate that I really don't hate that he deserves it he deserves it I don't think he is yeah we will at least we'll have somebody will be number one, but pants might get a voter too. Who knows what the hell Casey's going to do at this point? He might just put pants there too. Maybe pants is the number one pound for pound fighter.

I'm not really sure. He had Iliad four going into this. We talked about this in the preview show as well. Like he had, he had, he had Elliott at four. So I don't know. Is he just going to jump from four to one? Maybe. Yeah, he is.

I mean, dude, he's got Usun-Narmaga made up number nine. I mean, there's just so much going on right now. But let's get into. Marab is definitely in the discussion. He's not one or two. I'm sorry. He's just not. You want to put him at three or four or five?

Sure. He's in the top five without question. But Marab is not one or two. He's not above Islam. He's not above I'm above I'm. I might jump pants over him at this point. I shouldn't. But pants just deserves it.

He's just so dominant. Just running through everybody. Just another impressive before us. Well, let's talk about elite to pour you. The new lightweight champion. The man knew. what was going to happen well before. He walked into that octagon

Saturday all week. He said, I'm going to knock this guy out. This will not be competitive. This will be an all-time memorable performance. There's video of him celebrating, becoming the lightweight champion. Friday night, AK. He was already having his championship-winning

celebration party the night before UFC 317. And people started a question. Is he just overlooking Charles Oliver? Is he not taking Charles Oliverer? Oliver very seriously. Does he not know the man he's fighting? He knew the whole time, A.K., this man is an anomaly.

His confidence levels are off the charts. I've never seen anything like it. And this includes Conna McGregor, A.K. This includes Connor McGregor. Connor talked a big game. Connor believed in himself, but the body language that Ilya puts through, the way he walks, the way he talks,

everything about him, there's just such an aura, such a confidence to him. that he just knows well ahead of everybody else. It's absolutely insane. So having said that, he's the new lightweight champion. They had the face off with Patty Pimblit. Dana White was not happy about that. Having dug deeper into why he wasn't happy about that,

I kind of get it. And I was a little hard on him on the post-fight show until I realized that. And I since put the right hand of accountability up. So is this Patty Pimble, AK? Is this the pick? I mean, I've been calling big things for Patty for a long time. It's got to be. It's got to be. You certainly have alternatives.

You certainly have alternatives. I know people, I know Justin Gathe's out there campaigning for it, but I just don't see how he can get it over Patty right now. He should certainly be on standby. He should certainly be on standby. If there's some reason Patty cannot compete in the next six, seven months, yeah, Justin Gage gets that call. No issue there. No problem with that. But, I mean, they built it up so well. It was such a great moment. I'm like you, Mike. I also thought in the moment, it sounded so ridiculous for Dana to be so sanctimonious. Oh my goodness, how could this happen? But like, in a sense for once, he was actually being like kind of responsible.

Like, it is true. It is true that you don't like, considering how these two guys seem to genuinely dislike each other, there was the chance for some unwanted chaos. But again, as someone who normally clutches of pearls, I thought that was a bit of an overreaction from Dana to just be like, oh, that shouldn't have happened. That shouldn't have happened. Yeah, listen, we need better protocol for this stuff. But these in-caged face-offs happen all the time.

This one just had some heat to it. Thank goodness, nothing happened. You know, yeah, there was no real controversy. And it was just a great moment. It was a great moment. So hindsight, in hindsight, fantastic. Dana really should not have complained about it. But yeah, it's got to be the fight.

Cirqueon's waiting in there too. He weighed in as the backup. And as Patty said later, he's probably going to have to weigh in as the backup again. Because it's time. It's time for Patty Verzilia. I remember saying many, many, many moons ago, I didn't think it was going to happen, but that stranger things have happened than Patty,

patty pimblit contending for the ufc lightweight title this must be when he was made two or three fights into the ufc career probably before the jared gordon fight um that's the strange things have happened and here we go we're with one step away and i think people can hate on patty all they want and question his credentials question his skills the heat is there the story's there the results are there he's undefeated the ufc so far so let's do it aile versus patty i want it yeah i mean what else are we doing here you cannot risk patty fighting anybody else right now you just can't do it you can't throw them in there with gaiti you can't throw them in there with anybody else you have to cash in on this fight right now and i i you know i just the fact that that was not immediately made

last night was a bummer it was a bummer i really wish i really wish jada just said you know what we're going to do this at the end before the end of the year it's going to be leutipore versus patty pimble for the lightweight belt they have to do it. I don't agree with this, by the way. If we're talking sport, it is absolutely not Patty Pimbley. I mean, he's probably like third or fourth on the list

if we're being true and honorable to ourselves about sport and merit and all that. But we have learned for many, many years, rankings don't mean shit. None of this matters. It's about dollars and cents. And Patty Pimblit versus Ilya is at worst, the third biggest.

fight the UFC can make right now, it's probably the biggest fight they can make realistically right now, you got to do it. You just have to because if they throw a patty in there with Justin Gachi and Gachi beats them, then what the hell are we doing here? That we just threw it away and it just loses meaning. Now you can still go back to it, of course, but you have to do it now. It's as big as it could get. It's peaked.

You got to do it. You got to do it. And then you do Armand versus Gachi if you can get Justin in there. But yeah, both Armin and Gachi were catching. stray is from Dana last night. So we shall see how it, how it all goes down. But unbelievable stuff from Ilya to

Poria. We've been saying for a while, there may not be another like actual star in the UFC because the UFC has done such a great job of making themselves the star. But at the same token, I think Ilya is a patty finish away from maybe being that guy.

He is the closest thing to a star. The UFC has had since Connor McGregor. And I know Pereira is popular and I know all that, but they, they're not stars. They're just popular fighters in the MMA community. Ilya crosses over in a number of different ways. And Iliate Tupori could retire tomorrow and make more money outside of fighting than he does inside of it. Vince, the man is knocking on superstardom's doorstep for sure as the lightweight champion of the world. But now we've got to go to Charles Oliver, okay?

Charles Olivera, he dared to be great. He went in there, fought Ily it to Poria. I thought he sold himself well all week, giving people, you know, some doubts on I'm like, Charles, look at what he's done throughout his career. Maybe the third greatest lightweight of all time. This guy's going to give Ilya more problems than people think. No, he didn't. Ilya just dusted him.

This was not competitive. This was just one of those like during the watch party, like we didn't even scream or jump up. We were just like, damn. this guy is is the real deal. We were talking about this on the preview show. What, if anything, does Charles Oliver have left to prove if he loses this fight? What else is left for him in this sport?

And I do think there are things that are left for him, and I do think he'll continue on. So I'm just going to will this fight into existence, AK, this needs to happen. And I will continue to say this for both guys, no matter what the result is. we're getting Charles Oliver versus Max Holloway to win or lose at UFC 318 Max Hollowe beats us some pouria I don't care we're throwing him in there with Charles Olivera if Max loses the BMF

DMF title I do not give a shit this is the fight to make we didn't get it the first time the world wanted it the first time ended in a freak injury let's do it Oliver Max Holloway win loser draw at UFC 318 yeah I think that's the perfect pick I mean, Max is very much the same, almost in the same situation as Charlie Olive's, right?

It's like, what more does he have to achieve in his career, right? He is essentially being called in to USC 318 to like, you know, see off his fellow legend. You know, there shouldn't be any real title implications. I'm sure fans would love to see maybe Max get another shot at Ilya somewhere down the road, but that's not happening anytime soon. Like Max could KO, doesn't pour in the first round, and he shouldn't jump over, Armin. He shouldn't jump over, G., he shouldn't jump over, well, maybe he could jump over Gates'i because he knocked him out.

But, I mean, again, he already got a title shot off of that. I don't know if you can keep writing that for so long. He shouldn't jump over Surukian. So that's what's ahead for these guys now is these fun fights, big, big money matchups. I would hope big money. I hope that you get compensated for a fight like that. And yeah, there's this great storyline where they just never, two guys who went on to become legends. And the first time they met, we just didn't quite.

And it was a big fight when it happened, too. I remember this was like, oh, these are two guys who are like, you know, future stars. And we didn't get what we wanted. So there's plenty of time to write that wrong. I'd be very happy to see Olivaire and Max Holloway too. 100%. At Desjardin, we speak business. We speak startup funding and comprehensive game plans.

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because they did the legit face-off that it was planned. By the way, I love this. I love this entire thing. Josh Van goes out and has a fight of the year with Brandon Royval. It might be the number one fight thus far. I think I'm going to put it over the Ballol JDS fight. I think I just kind of have to because even though we got two extra rounds out of the,

the Bilal fight. Jedd and I were talking about this on the watch party. If I had a couple of bevies and came home with the pizza late night and was like, I just want to watch some fist fights. Am I watching Bilal JDM or am I watching Roy Valvan? I'm picking Roy Valvan nine times out of ten because it was just so fun in electric. So what a what a speed run for Josh Van. Just proving that in today's MMA, if you want to get popular, if you want to get over,

just fight all the time. Just continuously fight every two or three months. Get your name out there. And that's how you become popular. That's how you make money in this sport. Ask Kevin Holland how important that was for him in 2020. Didn't even matter who Kevin fought. It's not like Kevin fought beast the entire time.

He fought Joachim Buckley who's making his debut. He fought Charles Antiveros during this run, who was like a, no one knew who Charlie Otavaros was. and still went 5 at O, got super popular, probably makes more money than almost anybody who fought on last night's card because that's what Kevin Holland has done. But Josh Van doing the same thing.

We're going to get Alexander Pantosian versus Josh Van, AK. This is very exciting. 24-year-old or 23-year-old Josh Van is about to fight the second greatest flyweight of all time, AK. This is pretty special stuff. How fascinating are you in regards to this fight? How excited are you for this fight? I want it now.

I want it now, Mike. Can we... You have seen Asheville? Let's go. Can we get this with apologies to Derek Lewis and Talison Tashara, who, thank God, I think are going to end this, finally end this heavyweight finish throughout. There's three heavyweight fights next week, by the way, and all three of them have the potential to end in a finish. So I think we're finally going to, the national nightmare was going to be over.

But yeah, I want to see it tomorrow. Can we do a special contender series episode Tuesday or something and just have these two fight? This fight is frigging incredible. I can't wait. You're talking about my kind of like how important is to fight frequently. Not just to be popular, not just to like help your contender status, not just to, you know, keep your name in the minds of the fans. How about like erasing a loss? Because I guarantee, I think people in this chat can, but I think most people who are like more casual UFC viewers have no recollection of Joshua Vans loan UFC loss.

You know he's 8 and 1 now. He's won 5 straight. And it wasn't that long ago. Like the law, you guys don't have time about Charles Johnson. He got knocked up by Charles Johnson, a very solid flyweight. But somehow Josh Van took that loss and has vaulted way past it, took whatever less he needed from it, bounced back, stayed incredibly active. And we're not even talking about that fight anymore.

We're not even talking about that fight. I don't even think that Charles Johnson tweet about it. I don't know if he remembers that he knocked out Joshua Van. But that is the benefit of staying busy, right? This is a what have you done for me lately business, almost more than any other sport. And that includes losses too and includes wins too. So if you win five straight again, they're going to put that in the back burner. So yeah, very exciting, very cool to get this fight.

I had picked Roy Valman. I just thought this has to be, this has to be too much too soon for Joshua Van. This has to be too many fights in too short a period of time for Joshua Van. But he was truly superb. And I think as Rogan pointed out after like did not even seem gassed afterwards after frantic 15 minutes of action did not seem gassed at all. This kid is special. Can he beat Pantosia?

I'm not picking it, but I didn't pick. I didn't pick a van to beat a lot of people. So if he beats Pantosia at the age of 23, I don't know how old he'll be when the fight actually comes around. What an absolute legend we have in our hands. This happens before October. He'll still be 23. He'll be one of the youngest.

He won't beat John Jones's record, but he'll be one of the youngest ever, depending when this fight happens. Incredible. Yeah, very solid. If Van loses, who cares, because he is only 23. He will be the champion of this division in the next two years. Worst case scenario, he's just that good. I do think Brandon Roy Val is going to go rewatch that fight.

And if he's thinking about it as I want to be one of the most exciting fighters in the sport, he's going to be thrilled with it. He's going to get paid like a winner, Dataway giving him the win money, which I think is pretty badass. Obviously, getting the extra 50K for the fight of the night, what's going to be in the top three for fight of the year. and so we can take solace in that. But a guy who,

if his dream was to be a UFC, the UFC flyway champion and wear that belt, and if he goes back and rewatches it from that perspective, he is going to be pissing himself for not trying to wrestle at all, not trying to take Josh down at all. But to his credit, up until the final 10 seconds, I thought Roy Val won the fight.

I thought he was winning the third round. I mean, Van was, if they scored it for Van, I wouldn't have been upset about it. But once a knockdown hit, like, that was it.

Like, that was the fight was up in the air for the final, up until the final 10 seconds. And Josh Van gets it done. What a, what a performance. What a fight. Crazy stuff.

Pantosha versus Van Rocks. I hope we get this sooner rather than later. But on the flip side, AK, I don't think there's any other option here for Kai Karra-Franz. Can we just cash in this? Can we just cash in the Spinell Cop thing and just get it done? Like, what the hell are we doing here?

Just, I don't care when cop's ready to come back. I don't care if we have to wait until March of 2026. Kai Karatz's next fight is against Spinell Cop and vice versa. Cop seems to be saying soon. I think he said his foot is healing well. He is targeting a return for the end of the year. That works out perfectly. I'm sure Cairo France needs a little bit time off.

Needs to just sort of retool. I think mentally just sort of take a break, retool. That's a tough loss, right? tough way. It almost felt like he was never in it. Like he fell victim to just the classic Pantosia rush, just the malling, the cannibaling, if you want to call it. That was really scary. Like that was, that was not a, I think sometimes we always think like, oh, maybe we'll see a kinder, gentler pentosia, you know, as he gets older, maybe he has to become more tactical. But the man just fights his way every time. He's like,

no, that is not how I fight. That is not how I became champion. I'm coming at you. And if you're, And he's never been finished. So every time Patoja goes in there, it's essentially like, hey, I'm coming at you. If you can put me down, put me down. Guess what? No one's ever done it. No one's ever done it. I fought, what's his record now?

He's fought 35 times as a pro, has never been knocked out or submitted it, which is crazy, considering some of the amazing names he's been in there with. But yeah, but back to Kai Kaira France. It's just not your night. You know, it's just not your night. And you are fighting one of the probably 25 greatest fighters of all time. If we're being realistic, I think that's where Pantosia is, or at the very least, will end up when his career is all said and done.

And it happens. So, yeah, go with the fight that has some heat. These guys don't like each other. They are always talking about each other in interviews. And cop has to find a way to get back in that title picture. And beating the guy who just fought for the title, I think we put cop right in there. Could not agree more. Yeah.

Let's go to the lightweight division, Benil Daryush. The man is back, gets a win, gets on the mic. and does the most uninteresting thing possible. This is why we love Benile Darius at this point. We just accept him for who he is. He's not going to call anybody out. He's not going to be that guy. He's a guy who should have gotten a title shop,

but instead of calling for it, said, I'll fight 10 more times in a row. And it's a guy who just won't fight for a belt, but that's okay. Great win for Benal Darius. Where are we going here for the Salt and Pepper King, Benny D? I had laid the groundwork. I think for this fight, thankfully,

because otherwise, man, I don't know if I had to just go down the rankings and figure it out where I go. After Gamrod's last win, I think I said, win-loser drop. I wanted to see him run it back with Benile Darius. The first fight was a while ago. Very fun fight.

Gamrod, again, is not really in any position to get someone in like the top five or six. If you can get a Darius fresh off a win, good stuff. And, hey, if you're Benny and you beat him again, you just continue this great run. His whole post-fight talk with Rogan is just like, hey, listen, I just fight. I'm a spiritual dude.

And as long as I'm able to fight, I can. I love it. I'm not, you know, we know this, Mike. He's never going to call people out. He's never going to call for a title shot. It's just not what he does. He does the exact opposite of that more often than not. So yeah, you got to just keep going on him in tough fights.

And I'm sure he'd welcome my chance to maybe beat up Camrod again. Yeah. I mean, not my choice. I mean, the first fight was fun. And I cashed a dog ticket on Darius, which I did last night too, which is always always fun when you could do that. He's just so lost in all of this. It's a great win.

He's just going to be a dude fighting dudes. And I don't know, I just, I don't know what, like, the UFC's plans are for Benile Darry. So, but they kind of owe him one, if we're being honest. Like, they just kind of owe Benny one. So what I'm going to offer up to the, to the universe. And honestly, if Benny were to call out anybody, He should have called out this guy.

So I'm just going to make the call out for him. Binyl Darius versus Michael Chandler. That's what we're doing. Oh, the Chandler card. I had not even thought about that. That would be the least trash talk of any fight in MMA history. And it'll be so refreshing. I guess so.

It would be so cordial. Oh, my goodness. Like, I don't think they'll be like traveling around together like buddies or anything. But man, it's just me all hugs. and handshakes and I respect this guy so much. And terrific quotes. Terrific quote. Inspirational quotes.

I mean, neither of these guys are in the championship discussion right now. So let's just like let's throw Betty a bow and give him something. Like you didn't give him a title fight. Let's give him Michael Chandler. He's a well-known guy. He's popular. And Darius will probably win. So let's just go ahead and do that.

Why not? I like it. Like, let's keep it classy. Let's keep it classy. Yeah. Like, I want, Gamrod to fight either Fazeve or BSD. There's heat there with BSD, the Fiziv fight we never really got to see.

I would love to see Armin Sauru Kine fight Gammar again, but that makes absolutely no sense right now. Let's just do fun things with Bidiel Darius. Let's go to the Banimite division. Not a y'all must have forgot type of thing, but people just jumped off the Peyton Talbot train like really, really quickly. It would be just immediately after losing the Hione Barcellos. And that begs to the question, the question, how good is Hayoti Barcelos?

And apparently he's really good because Peyton Talbot fought Felipe Lima, who is a very good fighter. And Tabula, great. Like, this is a terrific bounceback performance. You can see improvements in his game. He put so much pressure on Lehman in this fight, kept him on his back foot. And Peyton Talbot's back in the wind column. And this was the toughest one for me, AK. I spent the most time thinking about this one, a very popular choice.

Jed kept saying it, let's just give Peyton Talbot Cody Garbrant. Like, let's just do this. Let's just do this thing. And I thought about this and I was like, that makes a lot of sense. But then I realized,

this is a silly idea. Because Peyton Talbot does not need Cody Garbrat at all. The wind over Cody does not do for him what it would do to a Malcolm Wellmaker or due to an Adrianianz, or due to even a Montel Jackson at this point. Like Montel even being ranked. would get some, he'd get the rub from Cody.

I don't think Peyton gets anything from this. So I went a different direction. Maybe a tougher fight, though. But I actually would pick Peyton Talbot based on what I saw last night. I'm going Peyton Talbot versus Chris Gutier. No way. Do you? No way.

Do you hear that? I hear it. Someone flucking. Yeah, I heard the Poon. The amp turned on. Do I need to count it down? Please. One, two, three.

Friends forever. Love this. All right. Here's Scudiaris. Why did you choose this one? I don't know, but I'm like you. It did not come immediately. This was not like my first choice.

It took a while. I was going up and down the charts. I was the first thinking, like, you mentioned Yanyes. That like wasn't a terrible callout. I think that's a winnable fight for Tal. But I just wanted to go. in the direction, so I kind of rolled that out. But very, very possible.

He just gets what he called for. And then I was like, can I have him fight back a little bit? Because this jumps up. I think I had Lima. I see where I had Lima in my rank. Well, not, I didn't have my bandtomweight rankings technically because, you know, he was fighting at featherweight. But he had beaten Miles Johns, which made him a top 30, which made him a top 30

bantamweight. So yeah. So then I'm like, can I go back from that? And there's just no really reasonable names. A lot of people who are already booked, some older veterans that just doesn't make sense. You mentioned Cody Garbrand. I was like, Hania, yeah, stuff like that. that. So I said, yeah, let's go up. And I'm just a few knotss above him. I have Chris Gutierrez,

and you get past that. And it's a little bit out of the range. I'm comfortable booking your men. So, yeah, that's how you land on that. It'll probably be mostly a striking battle, which is good. That's what kind of Talbot's specialty is, at least before this fight. The wrestling looked great. I mean, if you ever want to see someone night and day learn from a loss, the patent Talbot that was stuffing Lima's takedowns, blocking his trips, reversing him against the fence, he, he, I'll tell you, that version, like, what am I trying to say here? Like, he would have done a lot better against Barcellus if he had those skills. I don't know if he still, I don't know if he could beat how many Barcellus that they fought again, like, next week or something.

But it would have been a very different fight. He did not have these techniques available to him in that, in that Barcello's fight. He took, him and his team said, okay, whoa, you can't do this, you can't do this, you can't do this. We're going to train all this. We're going to trail all this and you're going to learn it. because his his take down defense was fantastic he kept ending up on top his balance was outstanding like it was just really great to see i'll question lima's like you know strategy a little bit i wonder if he had just stuck with his striking um would this fight have had a different outcome but

i get it they saw talbot as they saw what they thought was a weakness and they tried to attack it and that weakness had been had insured up considerably so yeah i'm back in on patent talbot i'm like you said my people who jumped off i probably jumped off a little bit even though i didn't think losing to barcelos was like the worst thing in the world. I think we all knew Bresela's had a very good chance to beat him. But yeah, I also had picked Lima to beat him. And Talbot surprised me. This is just a great performance.

And I'd love to see him fight other guys in the 30 to 30 to maybe 18, 19 range. Those are all good options for him and winnable fights. Yeah, I cashed a talitig. I took the plus three and a half points worked out. Because I thought Lima would win, but I thought it would be just a really, really close fight. And I just needed Talbot to win one round. And I knew he was capable of doing that. Great win.

I will say this, though. Chris Gutierrez was not my first choice. It's what I ultimately was like, all right, I'm doing it. I almost went Peyton Talbot patchy Bix. I was very close. Very close. I think Peyton can win that fight. But to take down defense, the grappling defense was outstanding.

Yeah. It was outstanding. And offense. I should say, I should, like, anyone who didn't see the fight for me, like, he wasn't just stuffing it and like, oh, standing with that. He was like staying on top and like, yeah, I'll grapple. with you landing a lot of ground and pounds scoring on the ground so it's serious stuff let's go to the wild card round okay and then we'll go to the peeps uh so get your super chats ready get your matchmaking

ideas ready we're going to select one fighter we have not match made for right now and we'll do it right here on the program so aka i'm curious who is your wild card selection following ufc 317 jonata denise let's go um no i uh listen i i i i did my white heart hot heavyweight division matchup pick last week with Mo Usman. And Janux has got some ways to go before he reached that level. So he's not my wildcar pick. I'll go with another fighter who I picked against because I'm a fool. I thought Vivienne Arirjo was going to be Tracy Cortez.

Arrojo was the underdog going in probably because she's a little bit closer to the end of her career. So I guess Ozmakers recognized that and figured Cortez's wrestling and other skills could like kind of make up for whatever gap in like I think Arirj is a really skilled fighter. But Cortez looked great. Cortez looked really, really composed. I know she wanted that finish, but Arrejo's pretty damn hard to finish. There's no shame in that. I thought she did a great job with the post-fight speech.

I think doing it in Spanish was very sly and very clever, considering the political leanings of some UFC people and also some of the fan base. But if you want to see her elaborate more on that, guys, you can check out her scrum on MAAFling.com. So I support that. Great job, Tracy, using your platform. And also, yeah, again, really impressive win. And she, she, I think, was already ranked in the UFC.

I think she's been ranked in our rankings, but isn't at the moment. But she just beat a top of Dean fighter in the MA fighting global rankings. So she'll have a number next to her name. And I'm going to give her someone with a higher number who she had been booked against before and is coming off of a loss, but still has a lot of promise. Let's, let's revisit Tracy Cortez and Miranda Maverick. How about that? I like it. I like it.

That's it. I don't mind. I don't mind Tracy Cortez versus Aaron Blanchfield either. Run that shit back, baby. Oh, right, right. Aaron needs a win. That was a controversial one too, wasn't it? Oh, yeah, pretty much anybody who watched that fight,

that Aaron Blanchfield won. Damn. Yeah. We'll just, we'll be time. We'll just throw that out there. I did not go genada to these either, AK. I went with the goat, Alvin Heinz, baby. Oh, my gosh.

Can you tell people? I don't know if you said on BT. Did you say it on BTL? you said in Slack. Have you said this publicly? Oh, yeah. I've been saying it all week. Okay. I really put it, I really put this out on Twitter on Saturday, but I talked about it a lot during the People's Free Fight show. Parker Porter's the goat when it comes to guys like, who aren't good, but you root for. Like, you just want to root for them. And they, their legend just kind of grows because you want success for for them. And I think if Parker Porter Porter,

the goat, Alvin Hines is the apprentice. When Parker Porter retires, Alvin Hines takes the throne. He's just got to be one of those guys that you're just going to like, just almost at a hyperbolic world are just going to be like, this guy's the greatest. Alvin Hines stepping on the scale at the ceremonial weigh-ins was one of the greatest things I've ever seen. Steps up there. He stood on the scale like this, AK, for like 52 seconds.

with the same smile. I thought the screen froze with how long he was standing up there. And Dana White had to yell at him to get off the scale. He's so in the moment. So what we're going to do, A.K., because Alvin Hines, if we do a list of, like, who's top five fighters from UFC 317 who stocks rose, I'm dead serious. I say this, Alvin Hines, the stock rose more than Janata didn't he's the stock in a loss because of how much people loved him, how much people were tweeting about him,

how over he got over the last 48 hours. So, Alvin Hines versus Hamdi on double hob. Let's do it. Let's get Alvin Hines in the win column. Co-main event, UFC Vegas 136, whatever it is, Alvin Hines versus Hamdi, and just an easy heavyweight over electricity in the air, okay. Oh my God. I'm getting some vibes here.

Not Parker, who was the guy? Who was the heavy win in Bellator? Mike, that was like, had a bit of buzz for like two minutes. You're making that, AK,

Big Tudor? Big Tudor? Are we big tuning? Are we big tuning? No, because the UFC's will get it right. They'll get it right.

They will see, what Bellator did is Big Tuna was so over that they threw him to Sullivan Cully who just killed him. On the first fight of the card, by the way, where nobody watched it, even though Ben Parrish was, like, incredibly popular, you throw him in there with, like, the local regional guy who was, like, one and nine.

That's who Ben Parrish should be fighting. Instead, they gave him Ryan Bader's, like, up-and-coming murderous teammate, who was just so good, and you put it on the first fight of the night, the opening prelim fight, which was redonculus, absolutely crazy. They're not going to do that. the UFC knows what they're doing they're going to give they see the buzz for alvin hines they're going to give him a win

they're going to go out there and try their best to give this guy a win and who knows maybe alvin hines Josh vans this thing all the way to a heavyweight title fight because top of national needs opponents and there's 14 and a half heavyweights

on this roster right now so we need alvin hines to succeed we need it to happen yeah he has no nickname right oh of course he does what am i saying He has no nickname. He has a fantastic nickname. Goosey. Goosey. All right. All right. He's the best. Fine, Mike. Fine. Fine. He's not. Maybe he's he's no big, too. I mean, he's not going to be the next big tuna. And I mean that as a good way, I think. Yeah. I still think big tuna. I think what they, how they handled big tuna was pretty much all I needed to see to know that Bellator was done. That was the end. That was the strad that broke the cables back.

Like they, the guy, the MMA gods hands you a gift, like a, just such a gift. And you just threw it away. And like two months was wild. All right.

Let's go to the peeps. Do some super chats. We'll get out of here, uh, soon around later because I'm tired. Uh, amen report. 4177.

I would love Sarukin versus Gachi. Co main event to support. versus Pimplett. Sure. But is the UFC going to pay Justin Gachi, the type of money Gachi at least if we're, if we're to believe what Justin Gachi says, Justin is going to ask for a hefty pay raise to take a fight against a guy like Armin Saurukin, and he will want in writing a guarantee that he will fight for the belt if he wins, plus the money on top of it, because if he loses, he wants to be taken care of financially. So does this fight happen, A.K. Armand Seroon versus Justin Gachie, I would love to see it in your heart of hearts.

Do you think it happens? It's not unreasonable. I don't think it's unreasonable at all. But as you said, the money's got to be right. The money's got to be right. If I'm Gatzy, I'm essentially asking for, yeah, pay me, pay me what you would pay me as if I was the B side in a title fight. I don't know if the U.C. would ever do that.

But they have a very good relationship with him and his management. So maybe they don't quite hit that number, but they should, I mean, there's got to be a middle ground to make him whole here because he's not wrong. He's not wrong about having bailed out the UFC and done all this and all that. Always been a company man. Now, again, some of that is to his own detriment. It's one of those things where, yeah, Justin, sorry, but they recognize that. And that's why they're not inclined to give you more, right?

They are used to you saying yes to whatever they tell you to do. So if you're suddenly, I don't say it's out of nowhere, but if you're suddenly demanding considerably more than usually would, they might just shrug your shoulders and say, well, hey, listen, we got everything out of you. We got everything out of it. You want to sit in the side. You want to sit on the side. Dana said,

Dana said, I hate when people use their word retirement. And if that's where Justin is right now, then, you know, I can't talk him to fighting. He gave him that. He gave him that treatment. And to give Justin Gates,

that kind of treatment is disrespectful, but also a sign that he has very little leverage. But I hope that make it happens. But please pay the man. Yeah. Justin Gagee, like every other fighter on the roster is dispensable, every single one of them because of their business bottle right now.

And guess what's coming up in like five weeks time, contender series? So they get to reload the roster with 12 and 12 fighters. And if Justin Gagy wants to go, they will just, they will get rid of his payroll very, very easily without hesitation or any problem whatsoever. Did you see Dana's answer for like, you know, because they said that they're going to expand contender series content with the, that's their plan anyway with the new broadcast deal? And they were, you know, someone asked him like, what does that mean? Does that mean twice as many contender series episodes? Does that mean like a, you know, a summer and like a winter season or something like that?

Like how are they going to do more? And he didn't have like an exact answer, obviously that's still in the work. right but he did say like man i would run you know three times as many uh contender series something like that as long as the talent is out there and i'm like it's not it's dain it's not it's not i would hope you have learned from the like past few seasons that that it's not and credit to all the fighters who get on the show and earn contracts on the show but i think you only need to look at sort of the i know we're right in the high of 317 but like the glut of cards of 12 fight 13 fight 14 fight cards where you don't remember 10 of them by the end of the night that to me is a

that maybe we should dial back on the Contender Series content, but you know that's not going to happen. When Pumi Nakuta is not fighting on any of your contender series cards, you are no longer allowed to say the best fighters outside of the UFC fight on our show. Yeah. Like, that's it.

You just don't like them. And it's so silly. It's so, what have you done to my contender series? I mean, we know what you've done. We know what you've done. We know what you've done. It's okay.

Don't you dare say something bad about all. Never did. No one. Never would. Who would? He got iced. I mean, that's just reality. That's not saying about anything bad.

It hurt your soul if you're an all of air fan, but he was on the wrong end of one of the all-time greats potentially. Like, he was speed running something really special. Let's be clear. He fought his fight. It's not, I see some of those saying like, oh, he made a mistake in this fight. I'm like, guys, it's the same mistake he makes every fight. He goes in, he gets cracked. Usually he survives.

And sometimes he comes back and wins. That's what happened during that huge run, we became lightweight champion. just more often than not, he was able to get hit and come back and win. But again, you reach a point where, one, you can't, your chin's just going to go away. And two, you're facing someone like Ilya Tuporia, who has maybe, who's maybe pound for pound, the best knockout artist in all of them may right now. Will the UFC stop fumbling Minel Cobb KKF now? I don't think they fumble this.

I don't know. Neither fighter has been able to, like, make the fight. It's only officially been scheduled like once, right? Am I crazy? Yeah, it's been like advertised and like this is happening on this event, poster made once. And KKF got a concussion. Yes.

Very training. So you can't fight. And then it turned into, oh, this dude's a word I'm not going to say on this peer program. It's Sunday, the Lord's Day. So I'm not going to say it.

But you just have to make this fight. Like, what are we doing? What are we doing? Stephen Pants is number three, pound for pound. Let's go say it. A.K.

Say it. Reckin Strickland. Is he two. going to happen, Mike, you were spicy last night and I loved it. I don't know what I did. That was really any different than what I normally do. Why am I being shouted at? What I, he's number three on my list,

personally, and I think tied for number three on our like consensus list, like our total, you know, rankings altogether. So, uh, I'll say it. I think he's going to stay four for me. I'll say. You have behind Rob, yeah. I have behind Rob and DDP. I have pants at five.

Oh, DDP, yeah. And a DDP beats Hamzat, like he's only going to go up, right? So, yeah. DDP beats Hamzat, he will be like, I don't know what can be bigger than one. It might be like 0.5. He just jumps up to there. Are you seeing it? Because Jed is saying the same thing.

He says no matter what happens, he doesn't give a crap what happens with Islam and J.DM. Like, because that fight's not even booked yet. If, if DDP takes care of business, he's putting DDP number one. I think it's a fun time right now for this to. discussion because there is certainly a case to be made like his ddp is just beating like ddp is ddp is dddp is ddddddd like the first strickland fight was so close but he he destroyed him in the second fight it was so non-competitive but he like knocks out whittaker he knocks out israel just what he's accomplished and then if he goes out there beats homzad like he ain't get a decision

hamzad he's got to put him out of there if he beats hamzaa shmai if no one's been able to do it Gilbert Burns came somewhat close because I just wanted to have fun in bra all night but I don't know it's a discussion we have to we have to absolutely have with ourselves we have to prepare ourselves for this but the top five right now

like solid has to be as like Makachev, Toporio, Pentosha, Devolosia de Volusili, duplacy right? I don't think Jdm slips in there right he's not a big six right it's a big five right JDM as a if you oh JDM beats Islam then man then it definitely becomes a big six obviously wow

Ankelyos on the outside looking at. Alive's not in there, unfortunately. Tommy Aspinall, maybe. Tommy Aspidol's there. The competition is not there for Big Tom, though. Damn. Yeah. Dan,

I would love seeing that John Jones fight. Ankelius won like 12 in a row, but no one cares. I know. He should be up there. He should be in the top five. He's just not. I just don't care. Yeah.

He beat like the number top three guy. Like, I think everyone had Ferreira in their top three. And Ankaa beat him pretty clearly. And then we're like, nah, it's good job forera. Now, you don't take a spot. All right, let's keep this going. Joseph Bose congratulates you on another. Oh, wait, did you read that out?

Did you read that last message you threw up there? Which one? The Alvin Hines. No, you threw it up on the screen. I don't know if you- I did. Oh, yeah. Alvin Hines is the Michael Jordan and Parker Porter Porter's.

Yes, Justin, you are correct. But I mean, yeah, Parker's Jordan. Alvin Hines is Larry Bergberg right now. Oh, okay. Just way more likable, if we're being honest. Like, Byrd's way was way more likable than Michael Jordan. played in civil. Sure.

But Jordan would beat him in a basketball game. Sure. This is a bizarre discussion. He really is. I don't even, again, people should know, I never understood the Big Tuna thing.

I just never got, I got, not because I anything against him. I just wasn't, I don't know, maybe I wasn't watching. Because Big Tudah beat a dude who was like John Jones's teammate,

and it was like, at the time, statistically, there was like the second biggest upset in major MMA history, the way he, He did it. And then, like, he got on the mic.

It was hilarious talking to Big John. And then he did interviews with, he did a bunch of interviews, did one with me. And he was just, it was, it was just so electric. This guy, I'm like, God, what a personality this guy has. He probably costs it like five grand to show five grand to win. And like this dude just became a star right before your eyes. And you did nothing with him. This is.

This is so much pressure on Goosey, Goosey. No, is it? He has a. He has now been compared to Parker Porter and Big Tuna. Dude, Goosey. Go see. Goosey's Instagram page. The guy's like a union worker.

Uh-huh. He's doing just fine. He's fighting just for the love of the game because it's fun. He doesn't need to fight. This is not his like be all end all. This is not how he supports his family or anything like that. Like he just, dude just likes to fight.

Misfits, Misfits All-Star, AK. I mean, come on. What a legend. Get on board, AK. I'm late on this one, guys. I'm so sorry to the mimic for you. I just, I just don't, I don't get it.

As a great fight, start the show, I will say. Good fight. Very good heavyweight fight, actually. This is very good heavyweight. Yeah, as much as we're dogging, like, oh, no finishes, which I find hilarious. It was a good fight. It wasn't like the greatest technical battle ever, but preliminary opener, two big boys, just going at it and, you know, leaving it all in there.

Credit to both guys, I thought they left it all in there, and it was good fight. If Moe Usman v. Hamdi was Moe Usman versus Hamdi, then Alvin Hines versus Janadines was Justin Gatjee versus Michael Johnson. Like, you know? Heinz versus Hamdi is just going to be, oh my God. It's going to be this. Oh, my God. Alvin Hines is going to do something that no one thought was possible.

He's going to make Hamdi seem fun. We'll see about that. We'll make him fun. Joseph Tuporia, Pimbley, Armin, Justin, Tracy versus Bacey, Barbisher. Terrence McKinney versus Melo Torres UFC Noce That's crazy That's wilds like

We didn't talk about Terrence McKinney Who had like again talking about Like we talked about Betoja rushing people I mean that was bikini man To grab the leg took Slava Clause down I was like I'm just going for a choke immediately I don't care of position I'm just going for choke I'm going for it

Jacoby Smith versus a media trading instructor Jesus boy How bad how bad Okay so one of the greatest Sorry one of the biggest favorites in UFC history We think he was the biggest He was the biggest favorite in US

history. Had a little bit of trouble with Nico Price. Now there's anything wrong with that. Nico is a respected veteran. I think even before the fight, we were all like, this is a little bit long. This is a little bit disrespectful to a guy who's had like almost 20 UFC fights facing a guy in his second UFC fight. But we understood there's a lot of high garage of Kobe. And at least

he got the finish. At least he got the finish, right? And the post-fight promo, which admittedly I thought was funny at first, just shouting Joe Rogan over and over again. I actually thought that was hilarious. But it just dragged on a little too long. And then he just didn't have a lot to say about like himself. self and his performance.

DC was immediately like crapping on him after. He didn't say that in the show. I think pre-fight he had said something about wanting to get a top of the 15thine opponent, which Jacobi Smith, please don't do that. Stay away from the top of the end of your division if you can. It was rough. It was rough. I saw a lot of people making, not amused by Jacobi Smith's post-fight microphone.

But I don't know. Maybe he was nervous. You know, maybe he thought the Joe Rogan thing was funnier than it was. It got uncomfortable. Yeah. It got uncomfortable. Again, and this is, this is, this is legitimately true.

Alvin Hines' stock Rose Moore than Jacoby Smith's last night. It is. No, you're right. You're right. Listen, Mike, there's two people this week who I did not expect to be talking about for more than like 30 minutes.

One of them was certainly Alvin Hines, though I know you're well past those. I'm so glad you're going to say this. No, I'm so good. No, I want you to finish. And of course, Christopher, Chris, you'reer. Who, by the way, friends, teammates, with Alvin Hines, they did the weight cut together.

Oh, that was nice. I saw that. I saw that. That was really nice. For a heavyweight to be like hanging around, like when you could be at the buffet, like instead of actually helping. Yeah. That was really nice.

What a guy. What a teammate. What a friend. This guy just has it all. You just, yeah, you just want to roof it. All right. You're winning me over. See, I knew.

I knew I would. Tristan, uh, Jose Delgado versus Gabriel Santos. We didn't even talk about him. What a, God, what a performance about Delgado? Yeah. Throwing down with Hyder Emil just say, let's go. Just like, Hyder Amiel could have put his ass out. Like, he just throwing hands in there.

He didn't care. That was awesome. But like he gets a 26 second knockout, no bonus, and no one talking about him. Jesus Christ. He was the UFC Baku of UFC 317. Jacobi Smith versus Sam Patterson, Smith called up Patterson, dudeu, see, but Danny Barlow getting knocked up by him. Sure.

I don't mind that. Cool. What else we got? What else we got? What else we got? We got a couple of super chats. I don't know if you saw those coming. Oh, yeah, I'll go there.

McKinney versus anyone above the number 50 ranking at Lightway. special guardian of the number 50 spot of lightweight. Is he the lightweighty, lightweighty champion? Yes, because we equate lightweight with like excitement. So it's like the opposite of middleweight. Like we say middleweighty middleweight. We're talking about someone like, oh, one of those blobby like formless middleweight fights. To be the, it's almost like, it's almost like BMF, right?

It's like to be the lightweighty, lightweight champion. It's like, yeah, you've got to be this guy who just fights mid-tier opposition. And it always, it never goes to the cards. Never, ever, ever goes to the cards. Nothing would make me happier than McKinney somehow getting just like the right string of opponents and like falling like bass accuracy into a telethel shot i would just i just can't imagine happening because he has to beat at least like one top 15 person in there i don't think he can do it but man he's just so fun to watch he should fight in the ufc 45 times i'd love turns with me

he's the best uh just a quintessential get or get got guy he should be yeah he should have a job for the rest of his life uh george there's chance to see ilia versus jdm in the future Yeah. Yeah, distinct, distinct chance. JDM wins. I mean, I know if he nukes, if he nukes Islam, there's a very good chance we get that fight at some point. Like soon. You think like soon. Like within the next 18 months. And by the end of 2026, we get that fight. Wow. Yeah, it's entirely possible. Nothing is out the table for Ilya right now. He can call a lot of shots. He can call a lot of his shots right now. JDM has to do to Islam what Ilya did to Charles though. Like it can't be like he just wins a decision that he's got to run Islam over in order for that to happen.

My cutlist, Nico Price from Aiman Report. I don't know what his contract status is right now. That is now at least a long time ago. It's not quite to watch and fight right now. Two straight losses, four of his last five. Boy, three finished. finished three times during that stretch um yeah it's tough man he's uh he's he's he's over that 35 kind of hump and he's a lot of uc i said earlier almost 20 ufc fights been in some pretty hard

battles yeah would not surprise me if um if we see him uh part ways with the uc this this week but um good for him man he's had a good he's had a good career nothing but nice thing to say with neco mike keith chel and i disagree with you take that you will never touch ufc canvas he he reckons he got cut from the ufcc but not tkow and will still appear on d wcc yeah your old pal keith Yeah, well, here's the thing. He is not on DWCS right now. In fact, if you listen to that interview, his coach said they got an email saying that they, they are released from all of that right now. So his contender series fight, none of that is happening right now.

So they are under the impression. He's not fighting at DWCS this year. Now, maybe it's something weird happens and like one of the middleweights falls out. three days before, but then guess what? You're the same friggin' predicament you're just in. So you can't bring him back. So listen to what his coach and Chris said. They know he's going to have to go back to the well.

They know he's going to have to go fight for Fury FC or some of those regional shows and just rile off a bunch of wins. So if he gets back, it will be, I will be shocked. Not because of his talents, because he is certainly talented, but because something we discussed earlier, the UFC doesn't need anybody. They don't need Justin Gaichi. They don't need John Jones.

They don't need Connor McGregor. They don't need Sean O'Malley. And no disrespect to Chris Ewert. They don't need Chris Ewert. DWCS does not need Chris Ewert either. So it is going to be a long road back. It's bullshit. He got screwed in this whole entire situation.

Plain and simple. Yep. He should probably fire his manager. for not getting him a catchweight fight. I'm dead serious. Yeah. I'm dead serious. I would fire him.

I would get with literally anybody else because this is how you allowed this to happen and then didn't fight really for your client, which is what it seems like to me. Maybe I'm dead wrong. I also know who his manager is. And I'll just say I'm not surprised. And I'll leave it at that. But yeah. Mike, I suppose you did a great job covering.

that story. These are important stories to cover because I know we talked about probably an an ordinary amount and your average fan will, one, probably doesn't even know this happened. Two, if they are aware, we'll not be, we'll have forgotten about Chris Heward by Monday. Like, I understand. I know that's how this business works. I know there's a lot of people who are who just see this as guy missed weight or sorry, guy could not make weight was 10 pounds over. Like when they stopped asking to cut weight, UFC cut him good riddance. Like I know that's the story, but I'm glad we dug a little, I'm glad you dug a little deeper. And we got more of the story. So, hey, maybe there's more to it, but I think a lot of, a lot of the stuff that

Eured said, I think, made sense, frankly. And I hope, I hope, again, I hope he does get another shot with the UFC someday. Obviously, it's not going to be anytime soon. Or at the very least continues his work in the regional scene. He's 7 and 0. He's young in his career. Like, there's a lot of, there's a lot of good fights ahead for, for Chris Eward, I hope. And, yeah, this was just a really ugly situation all around. And it's just a bit harsh for him to be, I think, cut so definitively, considering what other fighters get away with, including the person that he replaced on the card. So great work with their, Mike.

Because, yeah, we got to tell these stories. We got to tell these stories. People need to know, man. And just to kind of build upon what I was saying, go watch that interview and find out how they found out that Chris Hewer was not only not fighting, but not on the UFC anymore. He found out what we did.

In fact, he didn't find out what we did. He found out on social media after John Anick announced it. They were not made aware of this until like later in the day when they got the email that he was released from the company. So they tried to John Anick out to inform the world that Chris Ewart was released from the UFC before Chris knew or anybody on his team knew. The whole thing is just such a botch. Mike, next time, we got to get to the bottom of Ilya Toporia scale gate, the 155.5.

I'm now, I'm fishy. He might have had a whole pound on Charles Oliver, heading at those way. I'm going to fly to Vegas and talk to Jeff Mullen. Jeff Mullen, please. What's going on? What's going on? Jeffrey, my man. We got to talk about this.

Oliver at 154.5. DeFora announced at 155.5. We all saw it. It's on video. It's on videos. I'm all MAPFighting.com, guys. Go to our socials. The way is there.

That was crazy. But I'm sure it was nothing. I'm sure it was nothing. But boy, thank goodness for sweeping that under the rug. Because that was a very, very strange moment for Jeff Malin and the Nevada State Athletic Commission. Oh, just kidding. 155. Oh, I'm sorry. Oh, I've said. I meant one. I misspoke. What the hell is that?

The hell? That's the best. The Abu Dhabi guys, he just, he doesn't even hide it. That's the best thing. Jeff tries to be like a little sly about it. Like you had Abu Dhabi, Habe was probably like 172. And there was just like 155 slams at home. He barely looks at it. Like he just, no, sorry, I think he looks like, I think he looks like, oh, what weight is this? Oh, it's 155?

One sec. I'm going to go, okay, 155, yeah. Great. Nailed it. I'm like, yo. He was like, 155 at a half, and he looks over, and John Anick's probably like staring a fire. Oh, a mullin. Yeah. Like, no. What are you talking about?

155. Check your phone. 155 on the dot. Crazy. Weird moment. Peyton Talbot, the fastest evolution in grappling and take down defense in recent memory. Him, JDM, JDM as well.

I mean, JDM was probably a little further along, but we saw JDM have some struggles with, like other like you know wrestlers probably not as good as bala muhammad and then suddenly he's what he's prime chuckledell in his first time he tried to take him down to like the third that too that's too he punched below on the face 167 times before below it's like oh maybe i should try to take down yeah that'd be a great idea uh but that fight rocks and and that's okay brand and roi brayne roy probably should try to try to try to try and that's all that matters so i think we're good I think we're good. Yeah, I think we've,

thank you, everyone. Thank you very much. We're obviously not done talking about this card. We will have a, oh, we do have one more stupid chat. We'll get to that real quick.

Hubble Boycana versus Chandler, Derruch versus Fiziv, Charles versus Max, after the Poria fight, Talbot versus Kyler Phillips. Phillips is booked, I believe. Yes.

No, is he? Yes, yes, yes. I'm pretty sure he's booked. Loctog? Is he finding loke dog? Yes, that's what it is. Rodriguez versus Piper. I don't mind,

Rodriguez-Piper. I think we've brought that up before on the show, or at least people have suggested it. I think that's a very logical, like, challenge for him, yeah. Moikano Chandler, sure, but I honestly, I think Darius deserves that opportunity more. I mean, Darius, let's give Darius Chandler. Fiziv's okay. Like, if they do Fassiv, I'm not going to be mad at it, but let's do Gamerat Fiziv.

Charles Max, yeah, 100%. Talbot Phillips, sure, especially if Phillips wins. Rodriguez Piper. Yeah, good pick. good solid selections we're good there okay let's so now we're going to pull up with the what's next ladies gentlemen

if you're a fan of heavyweight MMA boy do we have a card for you UFC Nashville 13 days from right now of course no UFC event next week I think we all could deserve we all deserve a little bit of time off from the ultimate fighting championship

and it'll be so worth the wait because in the main event Bridgestone Arena, Nashville, Tennessee, soon to be the biggest fight night gate in North American history. Derek Lewis taking on Talison Tashira, who is 8-0 and making his second UFC appearance, and Talasio-Tasherr gets a main event in just a second UFC flight. What a time to be alive, ladies and gentlemen.

Co-made event, Stephen Thompson versus Gabriel Bonfeme. Good fight. Featured bout? You know this is going to be action-packed. You thought Brandon Royval versus Josh Van was action-packed? Wait till Vitor Petrino and Austin Lane step inside that octagon. It is going to be one of the greatest things ever seen. Calvin Cater versus Steve Garcia, great fight.

Very much looking forward to that. Junior Tafa back on the main card against Tucco's. Yes, because after Tucco Tocos is tremendous fight at UFC Tampa on the main card against Navajo Sterling, Let's bring him back to a main card. Nate Landware, Morgan Chariar, that's going to be fun as hell. Lauren Murphy is back. Hey. Her return to the UFC taking on Edward Amora.

Fatima Klein versus Melissa Martinez. I'm just going to go ahead and throw this out for the world. That fight's going to slap. That's going to be a really fun one. Maybe fight of the night. That one might steal the show for fight of the night. It's very possible. Jake Matthews, Cheedy and Jokawakwani, Chris Curtis, Max Griffin at Welterweight.

the opener, Mike Davis versus Mitch Ramirez, which leads you into the people's main event. Walter Walker versus Kennedy and Chuku. So much heavy weightiness going on. I can't even control myself. That is 13 days from right now. UFC Nashville.

We are far from done from UFC 317 chatter. And we thank you all very much for joining us on the special live edition of On to the next one. Back in 13 days in podcast form for A.K. I am Mike Heck. Get some sleep, everybody. We'll see you throughout the week. We love you guys.

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